For the past years, the yearly Oricon rankings have been overtaken by super group AKB46 and Johnny’s Entertainment group Arashi and 2012 is no different with both groups charting high and taking the top positions again.

But what we are going through the rankings for isn’t necessarily the Japanese pop artists, but the Japanese releases by Korean artists instead. And even though there are loads of them nearly each week, only a few break the amount of sales necessary to get into the top 100 of the Oricon album and single rankings.

The first Korean artist in the single ranking is Kim Hyunjoong with his single “Heat.” He arrived at a 31st place after selling 202,672 copies of his single. Following closely with 184,469 copies sold, we find Super Junior and their May release “Opera.” Labelmate TVXQ got to a 40th place with 175,544 units of “Android” while 2PM is at the 47th spot with “Beautiful.” “Beautiful” sold 163,463 copies. TVXQ’s “Still” (160,791) got just one place lower while the first girl group in the ranking, KARA, can be found at the 49th spot with “Speed Up/Girls Power.” Another 2PM release is at 52, the group’s latest single “Masquerade” which sold an amount of 151,227 since its release last November. Girls’ Generation’s “Paparazzi” is at the 58th place, with Super Junior following just behind them. The group’s Japanese “Sexy, Free and Single” release got to a 59th spot. The singles sold 136,181 and 123,140 copies respectively. At 61, there’s space for 121,547 copies of Kim Hyunjoong’s other single, “Kiss Kiss/Lucky Guy.” SHINee’s “Dazzling Girl” took a 71st spot, breaking the 100k number with 110,230 copies sold, while Girls’ Generation closes the single rankings for Korean artists with “Oh!” at 92 with an amount of 84,814 albums.

Which was your favorite Japanese release of the year? Are you surprised by the ones that made it into the top 100?